Popping Up

This is what will be popping up in a few days, I saw the beginning of growth yesterday as I messed around in the yard. I love spring......Flowers, Blooming Trees and warm air. I love the smell of a fresh mowed lawn.
I was listening to Beth Moore and James Robinson last night and a verse that I have put on my desk a few weeks ago keeps popping up. I am assuming God is bringing this before me for a reason. I shared it with you about a month or two ago. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power, spirit of love and a spirit of a sound mind" Timothy 1:7 I ask myself once again why does this verse keeping popping up around me. I believe he is trying to teach me not to be fearful, fear is something I battle regularly, if you know me you might not believe it because I try not to show it. I also think he is talking to me about love. I don't love easy. I don't trust many and without trust lots of times it hard to love. I work at trying to have a sound mind, but with doubts, fears and no trust sometimes it takes alot of hard work. They were talking about how sometimes we play things over and over in our mind. That situations just pop up out of no where and grate on us so much that we can't let it go. Satan is trying to kill our progress and we let him by not letting go. That, I believe, is where the spirit of power comes in from this verse. We all know about fear, love and a sound mind, but what about the power we have. Do we really tap into this or do we think we are not worthy or capable to
use this power that God tells us he has given us. As I think of this verse today, I hope to gain more understanding to its meaning for me....

water-logged

Well today I finished my try at swimming the Yadkin river in two months. At the Y every year they set goals in the pool. This year was 29 miles, starting in January ending February, however with all the snow they moved it back 1 week. I only made it from Yadkinville to the Davie County bridge, I was short 2 1/2 miles. Just so you know one mile is 36 laps down and back. A mile usually take about 50 minutes to swim. Lets just say I am water-logged. I am tired of swimming. Last year we tried to swim 53 miles which is the length of Lake Ontario. Suffice it to say, I only made it to 46 miles. My sister, Leigh Anne has completed both tasks and has gotten the reward from the Y. A perfectly ugly T-shirt. As you can read I am not your typical type-A personality. I have alot of those qualities but not all. But I don't have to finish every single thing I start. I can tell you that I probably will not be swim for a few weeks, my hair, skin and biceps need a rest. My next goal is to try to start jogging, I am told this is about the only way I am going to lose weight. So we are going to try....

Buster

This is Buster.....He is telling me I am tired of this white stuff, it keeps me confined And Lazy......

That is how I am feeling right now, I need spring temperatures. I need warm fresh air.

I have alot more energy when it is warmer outside. When it cold I want to hibernate.

But here in NC we have it all, the great 4 seasons, mountains a couple hours away, the beach a little bit further. When I think about how blessed I am to be living where I live and know that there are others who don't have what I have. Shame on me for ever complaining. We have had missionary convention this week, and last night we saw once again the trash dump in Peru, About 30 of our people went last summer to work there, so I had seen the pictures my daughter-n-law brought back. It reminded me how blessed I am that God put me here with this family, I could have been born there. He has given more than I can imagine as he has with many of you. Pastor Rich challenged us to give to the least of these, here in America, there in Peru, and the many other places we can give. When we are looking into the eyes of the Poor we won't have time to be complaining(SIN) and as the man who lives at the trash dump says, there is always someone more poor than me.

Whiter than Snow

They are calling for snow here today, March 2. I think I have finally had my fill of snow this year, I can't believe I am saying this. As Joey and I were riding this weekend in the snow, I had one of my weird questions pop in my head. When did the folks of the Bible see snow first, It talks about how we can be whiter than snow. But Noah, had never seen rain till the flood. I know it doesn't snow much in Jerusalem.(I don't think) In 2 Samuel it talks about going out on a snowy day to kill a lion. Job talked alot about snow. Psalms and Proverbs talks about snow.The New Testament has 3 verses with the word snow in it. This is just one of the ways my mind goes in directions with no particular reason, just curiosity.

More Snow and Its Cold.....Brrrrrrrr

We decided to go to the mountains again to check on everything, as you can see these poor people have not seen dry ground since Christmas. They had just plowed the road again that morning, so to the left of me is all the snow from the road it was amazing to see.. Just a beautiful old home place, our neighbor in the mountains grew up in this house

Joey decided I need to take an adventure, so we went to take down his hunting stands from this picture you can see the mountain we climbed. Now it was 27 degrees, wind blowing like crazy and I am getting ready to climb this mountain.

We finally make it to the top and here is the great hunter and the best snow driver God has ever created(That is what he tells me every time we ride in the snow) Climbing to the top to start taking down his stand. He accidentally dropped the metal seat and about had a heart attack he thought I was standing under him and that he had dropped the seat on my head. He dropped a electric screwdriver on our son one time and the screw part landed in his leg from the top of a tree stand so I knew to pay attention. The thought of him carrying me down the mountain was a something I did not want to experience.

This is the scenery at the top of the mountain I climb, God sure does create beautiful views. I know you probably can't see it but the old home place from before is in the center of this picture.

Sometimes problems and life situations seem really big like that big old house up close but when you step back it can seem pretty small in the big picture of life. So don't let problems weigh you down, try and look at the big picture and see the beautiful views God gives us.